100 days of progress
100 days after Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Integrated Care System (ICS) officially launched, we would like to thank local people and partners for their contribution and support.
The ICS is a partnership between voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations, local Councils, and NHS teams, working together for healthier futures for communities across the area. Over the last 100 days teams in the ICS have worked together to make significant improvements.
Local people can now access GP appointments outside of normal working hours each week thanks to a new initiative with primary care colleagues; a brand new Green Strategy has been developed to ensure that local health and care services are environmentally fit for the future; and we have worked with District Councils to create warm hubs and other health and care related services to support communities throughout winter.
We have worked together to put in place strategies for People and Communities, and agreed ways of working with Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise Sector organisations in the area to ensure we work together to improve services for you.
We will continue to look towards the future to make sure services meet the needs of the communities they serve. The includes creating a brand new Health & Wellbeing Integrated Care Strategy to improve health, care and wellbeing services for local people. To help local communities shape this strategy, the ICS recently launched Let’s Talk – its exciting new flagship engagement campaign which encourages everyone in the area to have their say on the local health and care matters that are important to them.
Commenting on the first 100 days of the Integrated Care System, Jan Thomas, Chief Executive Officer, said:
“100 days on from our launch as an Integrated Care System, I want to thank our partners in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough for working hard to improve health and care in our area.
“We know there’s still more to be done. As we work to deliver more improvements to health and care services, we want to encourage everyone to have their say about their local health and care through Let’s Talk. If you live or work in Cambridgeshire & Peterborough, please do fill in our quick Let’s Talk survey and help us shape our ICS over the next 100 days and beyond.”
Sandie Smith, Chief Executive Officer at Healthwatch Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, added:
“The introduction of Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Integrated Care System has given Healthwatch Cambridgeshire and Peterborough a unique chance to feed people’s views into the planning and running of services – especially the voices of those who are not being heard now.
“Our Healthwatch has a non-voting seat on the ICS Board which has given us the opportunity to make sure that local people’s views are considered at the heart of decision making.
“We’ve seen a genuine recognition from decision makers within the ICS about the importance of listening to local people and involving them in creating new ways of doing things that are meaningful and not just tick-box. And as part of this commitment, they have funded a new role within our Healthwatch to help them build those links to engage and involve people in our most deprived communities.”
Val Thomas, consultant in Public Health at Cambridgeshire County Council, said: “The ICS was launched with a huge agenda which it has firmly grasped and taken forward, working closely with the Local Authority and other system partners. I look forward to building on and developing our work together to make the best use of the opportunities for change that will improve the health of our population.”
You can find out more about the work of our Integrated Care System via www.cpics.org.uk, and keep up to date by following us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. To take part in Let’s Talk, please visit our short survey here.